English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Whiteway Hundred

Hundred in the County of Dorset

Historical Forms

  • Haltone hundret c.1086 GeldR
  • Witeweihundredum 1188 P
  • Witeweie 1212 Fees 1244 Ass
  • Witeweye 1265 Misc 1285,1346 FA
  • Wytewaye 1244 Ass
  • Wyteweya 1252 Fees
  • Wytewey(e) 1268 Ass 1275 RH 1428 FA
  • Whytewaye 1244 Ass
  • Whytewey(e) 1259 FF 1270 Pat 1316 FA
  • Whitewey(e) 1270 Pat 1280 QW 1431 FA
  • Wytteweye 1280 QW
  • Wet(ew)eye 1280 Ass
  • Whitwaye 1542 LP
  • 'hundred of Iberton' 1490 Pat

Etymology

The 11th cent. name is from Hilton par. infra . Whiteway means 'white road or way', from hwīt and weg , cf. Whiteway Fm 190. According to Hutch3 4347, 'this hundred takes its name from the white or chalky road from Bingham's Melcombe to Hilton, where, near the top of the hill…is or was a bush or tree on Newton farm in the parish of Hilton, where the hundred-courts were formerly held'; however, it should be noted that there is another Whiteway in this hundred, with early forms, among the lost st.ns. of Milton Abbas par. infra . The 'hundred of Iberton '1490 Pat no doubt refers to this hundred, v. Ibberton par. infra .